The Practice of Therapy

[00:00:00] Gordon Brewer: We apply a lot of this knowledge and those ideas with our clients, but I think sometimes we're not good about applying it to our own lives. So take what you know, take what you believe in, take what you find important, the, the knowledge that you share with your clients, the things that you help your clients with.
And apply it to yourself. This episode is brought to you by therapy notes, therapy, notes. com, along with Barry's AI.
A little over 15 years ago, when I started my private practice, I had to learn a lot, and most of it the hard way, and I don't think you need to do the same. Hi, I'm Gordon Brewer, a licensed psychotherapist, and welcome to the Practice of Therapy podcast, part of the Psych Craft Network, a podcast. Join me in this journey of discovery as we have conversations with other leaders and professionals in both the mental and allied health fields.
Join us as we. Explore both the business and clinical sides of running a private practice.
Well, hello friends and welcome to the podcast. I'm Gordon Brewer, and this is episode number 363 of the practice of therapy podcast. And I want to say happy new year to you. It's already January, 2025. I'm actually recording this here on January 1st. The first task of the new year is to get this podcast done, you know, like most everyone I've been doing a lot of reflecting, you know, thinking back over this past year and.
Thinking ahead of what I would like for 2025 to look like. And so in this particular episode, I want to give you some thoughts on that and maybe some things to think about and just some things that I've learned on goal setting and on. You know, some of us like to refer to them as resolutions. We're going to do something new in the new year.
And sometimes we're successful with that. And sometimes we're not, but I'm looking forward to just sharing my thoughts on that. This'll be a little bit shorter episode, which is not bad for some of you, but anyway, hope you had a good holiday season. I know for me, it was a good one. This past year has been a much different year for me.
And I'll share a little bit about that in this particular episode. But before we get to my thoughts on, you know, just thinking about the new year and thinking about planning for the new year, I'd love for you to take a look at the Full Focus Planner. I think that's relevant for this particular episode, and I'll mention that.
In the episode. But if you'll go over to practice of therapy. com slash full focus planner, you can check that out. It's a landing page and full transparency here as an affiliate link, but it's the main tool that I use day after day and just helping me keep on track and staying organized. And in what I do, it's developed by the Michael Hyatt company and I've used it for, Oh, probably 10 years now.
But it's a. It's a paper planner and it is very nicely done. It's bound and I think having something of this quality kind of forces me to use it, knowing what I spent on it. It is maybe for some a little pricey, but I think it's well worth the investment. So, check it out, go to www. practiceoftherapy. com slash full focus plano.
And also, I would like to invite you to go over and check out www. mentalhealthweartn. com For those of you that have been listening to the podcast for a while, one of the projects I've been working on or helping a friend work on Is it's a, uh, online store that is devoted to, uh, t shirts and swag and things for that are focused on mental wellness and addiction recovery and, uh, just our professions in general.
My friend Ashley has put together a beautiful store, um, where in which she share shares, um, some designs that are geared towards these topics. And so I'd invite you to go over and check it out, mental health wear tn.com and, um, support her in this endeavor. I know she's put a lot of work in to it, and we're working on the.
In the background to try to make things better for her store and make it, um, reach more people. So check it out. And also before we get to my thoughts on the new year and just goal setting, I'd love for you to hear from our sponsors of the podcast, berries. icu and our big sponsor therapy notes.
[00:05:12] Whitney Owens: Hi, I'm Whitney Owens.
If you don't know me, I am the person behind the wise practice podcast.
I am so proud to be a part of this network, along with my good friend, Gordon Brewer, who's doing such amazing work on helping people on their practice journey. If you haven't discovered the Wise Practice Podcast yet, you can find it anywhere you listen to podcasts. I'd love for you to join us as we explore how to grow a faith based practice that brings you the income you need and the lifestyle you want.
Be sure to check out the podcast and other helpful information at WhitneyOwens. com.
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[00:08:36] Gordon Brewer: you know, as we bring the year to a close and we start a new year, and like I said earlier, I think one of the things that causes all of us to do is just, uh, Do a lot of reflection and just thinking ahead. And, you know, as I, as I like to think of it, as I'm thinking about all of this, I'm reflecting backwards, but thinking ahead forward, if that makes any sense.
As we start a new year, I think it causes us to really kind of reflect on the previous year. You know, 2024 for a lot of us was a tough year. I know for me personally, it was a, uh, Uh, a year of a whole lot of change for me as I, as many of you, as I shared with many of you, my wife passed away at the end of 2023.
And so 2024 was a whole year of me trying to find a new normal, just find a new way of being a new way of just interacting in the world and just redefining myself. And so. It's caused me to reflect a lot and thinking back over this past year and all the, all the changes that I've gone through personally.
But I think even on the, on the bigger picture, you know, just a lot of change for us just on the political landscape. I know there are a lot of us that were affected by the flooding from Hurricane Helene. So a lot of tough stuff to have to deal with. And, you know, I think it affects us in our business. I know it has affected me and my business and that I've really had to put a lot of effort into, you know, getting things done, getting tasks done, really thinking about, okay, what am I going to do next?
What am I going to. You know, what's next on the horizon? You know, what am I, what do I want out of all of this? And I think that is one of the places in which I know this past, this past week is a fact, as a matter of fact, yesterday, as I'm recording, this did some journaling and just really thinking about, okay, what are my priorities?
What are the things that are most important to me in my life? And what is it that. I want to focus on in this new year. One of the things that I, I always struggle with is staying, staying organized and also. Having a really bad tendency to procrastinate. And so that's something that I want to continue to work on, you know, and I think for a lot of us to just thinking about our health and you know, the, you know, the media is just full of weight loss commercials and that sort of thing.
And I think that's Something that I'm always focused on as well as just thinking about how can I have a healthier lifestyle those kinds of things But all of that when you think about it There are so many different I guess touch points or different things or different areas of things that we want to To focus on I like to think of it as the different domains of my life And so one of the things that I do is in just thinking and this kind of coincides with my journaling is just to sit down and take a sheet of paper or a whiteboard and Just divide things out into the different domains of your life.
So for example For me, I've got my home life. I've got my house. I've got my Things that I do within my circle of friends that are outside my business, those kinds of things. I've got my faith community, my church work that I'm involved in. That's another domain that kind of coincides with my friends and personal life.
And then also I've got my business. I've got my practice Kingsport Counseling Associates, and I've got those people that I, I work with and my employees and, you know, managing the day to day running of that, that business and that, that practice. And then I've got. Of course the practice of therapy this podcast along with the psych craft network that I started In 2023 or 2022 rather it's been a while now Anyway, i've got those different domains of my life.
And so it's helpful for me to just kind of Block those off on my whiteboard or my piece of paper and just think about, okay, if I focused on just one of those domains, what are the things I want to, uh, accomplish or what are the things that I want to change or make better or get done in the new year?
And so I think breaking things down into smaller pieces is. Is really helpful in thinking about goal setting. But even before that, I think one of the things that I think is really important to reflect on is what is the purpose behind everything? What is the why behind everything? I think a lot of times we will set goals that we maybe think, well, this is a good idea, or this is something I should do or ought to do those kinds of things.
But it might be things that really you don't want to put any energy, energy into. And so those are the things that I think you have to think about. You know, I've certainly, there are a lot of things within our life or things that we do have to do, for example, progress notes and those kinds of things. So looking at ways to automate those things, you know, one of the sponsors of the, of this particular episode is.
Is Barry's ICU and it's an AI driven product that is there to help you complete your progress notes much quicker and faster. And so I think looking for ways in which to do tasks like that or any other task to look for ways to automate. As much as you can, uh, and also outsource things that you should, you just don't enjoy doing.
And so that's something that I have to remind myself to do. One of the, one of the difficulties that I've always had, and this has been the, the case since I started my practice is that being a person that is kind of a helper. On the Enneagram, if you're familiar with the Enneagram, I'm a Enneagram 2 with a wing 3, which is, uh, the 2 is the helper, and then the 3, the wing 3 is the achiever, and so, I'm very, I'm very driven by helping people in that, in that sense, and so, I don't like to impose on people.
And so what that, what that ends up being is, is that I end up trying to do too much of it myself rather than handing it off to people and I could, we could probably do a whole episode on just. Delegating and being able to outsource better. But anyway, I think in thinking about your new year and the things that you want to accomplish, I think it's helpful to think about it in that way.
What are the things that you want to not take on, but take off your plate as a way to enjoy your life more? One of the things that I've done this past year, which I hope to do more of, is I traveled some, which is something I've had to put off for several years. Took a trip to Spain and it was a great trip.
Went with a group of friends that I had gotten to be very close with. Uh, we all knew each other, but became much closer on the trip. And so those kinds of things also bring meaning. And I think, you know, tied to your why should be some meaning. I'm always reminded of Victor Frankl's book, the man's search for meaning.
And I'm going to paraphrase kind of something that he said. Victor Frankl said, you know, if we don't find meaning and purpose in our life, we will tend to, um, seek out pleasure instead. And so finding things that are pleasurable to replace what is meaningful. And as we all know, pleasure, I think we need to do pleasurable things and fun things.
I'm not saying we shouldn't, but if it's all driven by just doing what is pleasurable, what is easy, what takes. Stress off of us. If it's just about that, then it's going to be pretty empty. So I think we need to find things in our life that bring meaning and purpose. And give us a sense of, yeah, that we're doing something that to a greater good in some form or fashion.
So I think that's something to think about in your new year. One of the things I would, you know, going back to, you know, separating things out into the different domains. I think it is a helpful process to maybe do some journaling. Uh, like I mentioned, I did that yesterday in just thinking about this episode, but just thinking about the new year, I went and sat down with my journal.
And just started thinking about what this past year was like, you know, what were the things that were kind of the touch points or the bullet points or the things that kind of stood out for me about this past year, you know, both accomplishments and also just things that were meaningful to me. So I think it's good to kind of reflect on those things, but also thinking ahead, you know, what is it that is going to be meaningful for me in the future are in this next year, in this next 12 months.
And I think for you to be able to do that as well. Is very important, you know Most of us that are at least at least I know most of the people listening to this podcast But we are in the mental health field and so we We apply a lot of this knowledge and those ideas with our clients But I think sometimes we're not good about applying it to our own lives.
So take what you know Take what you believe in think take what you find important You The, the knowledge that you share with your clients, the things that you help your clients with and apply it to yourself. And so, yeah, so that, I think that's a good starting place is just to do some reflection, do some journaling, and just thinking about kind of the big picture of your life and your business and your family and all those things that are most important to you.
And kind of narrow it down to what are your key motivations, you know, in the, in the full focus planner that I mentioned at the beginning, there's a section at the very beginning of the planner that is specifically for your goal details and each goal. Each goal that you set for yourself, in the planner has a full page devoted to that.
And I'm just going to read off to you what kind of the different sections of each page on the goal detail pages are. First is your goal statement. In other words, write it, it says write a smarter goal. And I'm going to talk about smart goals here in a minute. The second one is Key Motivations, and when I'm using this, that's where I start is with the Key Motivations.
What are the main reasons for even setting this goal? What are the priorities and the why behind the goal that you're setting for yourself? Also, there's a section in here for, for writing out the next steps in accomplishing the goal. And then I think this is important too, is there's a section in there.
How are you going to celebrate the accomplishment of the goal? And in other words, what are your, what are you, how are you going to reward yourself for accomplishing that goal? Because I think it's, it's important to celebrate and remember all of those things. And then also there's a way for you to track the progress of your goal as you go throughout the year, go throughout the quarter of just saying, okay, where am I in this, in this process of setting a goal?
One of the things that I, in the full focus planner that I like is, is that it's. It encourages you to write what is called a smarter goal. The, the premise behind that is with Micah, there's a, there's an acronym just called smart goals, which is as the word is S M a R T. And the S stands for something.
What is something specific you want to accomplish? In other words, something that is in, in the, something that You can write out and not just something that is really vague. The second one is M and that's just what is measurable. Then there's the A is, is it attainable? Is it realistic? And is the goal relevant?
The R is the, how is the goal important to you? And then the T is the time specific. In other words, When are you going to accomplish the goal? So in writing a goal, you don't want it to be something that is really vague. You want it to be very specific. You want it measurable. You want it attainable. It needs to be relevant and time specific.
And then with Michael Hyatt, he adds onto that, that smarter, the E and the R. And the E stands for evaluate. So you go back and look and see your progress along the way. And then, as I mentioned on the page in his goal detail, what is the reward at the end that you're going to give yourself for accomplishing that goal?
But what, one of the things that I put together and I actually did this a few years ago is a smart goal worksheet that you can get. It's a free download that I created. And if you'll go over to practice of therapy. com slash smart goals, we'll have a link here in the show notes. And show summary for that, looking forward to the, the new year for me personally got planning on doing some more traveling, I'm planning on doing some revamping of practice of therapy.
There are a lot of things that, uh, need updating, for example, the private practice startup guide. I've got to revamp that. And that's, that's going to be something I'm going to do in this first quarter. Also really helping people with podcasting through the site craft network. That's going to be a goal of mine is to bring on more podcasters, but also helping people start podcasts.
I know this has been just a very rewarding process for me, and I just enjoy putting this out every, every week and just get the thing I love most about it, or the people that I get to interview and the relationships that I forged through. Through the podcast. So that's another kind of broad goal. Also just looking at my house and downsizing and just the looking at where I live and how I can make that better and more suitable for the life that I'm living now.
The other thing is, as I mentioned at the beginning, and you've heard me talk about on several other episodes, just kind of promoting is helping my friend Ashley with her online store and getting that done. And then also just with my practice, just helping to improve our processes there, bringing on some more clinicians and really making things run even smoother.
I feel like we've got a good, good systems and processes within my practice and also doing some more consulting with people. One of the things that I'm looking at are. You know, bringing people, getting people more involved in the practice of therapy, practice collaborative, which is a, which is mastermind group that I started.
And you can find out more about that here on by going to the website, you'll be hearing more about that as I kind of revamped that in this next year. But anyway, hope you have a great new year, looking forward to 2025. I'm very optimistic and. excited about all the new things that are coming down the pike for me personally, but also just thinking about all the positive changes we can all make in the world moving forward.
So take care folks and thanks again for joining me on the podcast.
Well, I hope this has been a helpful episode for you. Do take time to go over and check out our sponsors berries. icu and also therapy notes. And Therapy Notes is the leading electronic health record system for mental health providers. They're who I use in my practice and I just couldn't operate without them.
But if you'll go over to practiceoftherapy. com slash therapy notes And be sure and use that promo code, Gordon, just G O R D O N. And you can try them out for two months for free. And I'm really grateful for them to continuing to sponsor the podcast and support me in this work of just helping other therapists in their practices.
And also be sure and check out mental health where tn. com and go in there and support my friend Ashley and her store and look at all the cool things that she's got for our, for us in our profession and also the people that she might be helping. So take care folks, got lots of great guests lined up for the podcast, and hope you have a wonderful start to 2025.
Take care.
You've been listening to the Practice of Therapy podcast with Gordon Brewer. Part of the site craft network of podcasts, you can find out more about the other great podcasts in the network by visiting site craft network. com. And if you haven't done so already, please visit us at practice of therapy. com and get your free private practice startup guide, along with a lot of other great resources and webinars and free things just by visiting also be sure to follow us wherever you might be.
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